The Swarm Lord, Part 2: Sweat
by Marine3950
Summary: Sara has left her past behind. With only Shiela at her side, she is ready to establish a new home in a new place, using the power of the Zerg Swarm placed at her disposal. However, her past still weighs heavily on her shoulders, and there is a new threat: attack by another Brood. With her inexperience compounding her difficulties, will she be able to survive?
1. New Beginnings

Sara sat down on the fallen log, and closed her eyes. She was tired. She was hungry. She was lonely. She'd been... running, she supposed, for at least a week. The brother she used to know was dead, replaced by some bloodthirsty monster. She looked over to Shiela, her companion in this self-imposed exile, and sighed.

"My queen, you need to stop dwelling on the past." She said.

Sara nodded. "I know, Shiela. But I keep running through what happened in my head, wondering if there would have been a way for me to keep him from going down that path. Maybe-"

"My queen." Shiela interrupted. "What has happened cannot be changed. Do not waste your energy worrying about what was. Right now, we must worry about what will be."

Sara nodded. "You're right, Shiela." She settled down beside the log. "Wake me up at dawn, please."

Shiela nodded.

* * *

Sara woke up to a gentle nudging. Instantly, she was on alert, but she relaxed once she was sure that it was only Shiela waking her up. "Thank you." She said.

Shiela nodded. "My queen, we'll need to get back on the Creep sooner or later. I won't be able to last much longer without its nourishing, and you've already receded from your peak capabilities."

Sara nodded. "I understand." She was about to continue with "But how the hell am I supposed to get access to Creep?", but she was cut off by a scream. Sara took off running towards the source of the sound, propelled like an arrow from a bow.

* * *

It was a pair of large, Saurian Chimera, called Nychora. They held long, pale green-brown tails our for balance, walked on a pair of muscular legs. Their strong arms reached about a foot in front of their elongated snouts, filled with a mix of razor-sharp teeth towards the front for tearing flesh, and sturdy molars at the back for crushing bone. For almost all intents and purposes, they were really just large Screechers, like she'd seen back home. However, these had one difference that set them apart: The claws. Screechers left light scratches. Nychora left large, bloody streaks with most of their claws. However, a claw on each hand, and on each foot, was specially designed for one purpose: To take down Chimera even larger than the pair of twenty-foot long, five-foot high, thousand-pound creatures before her. Against people... Sara purged that thought from her mind.

The second thing that she noticed was just as big of a shock as seeing these monsters so close up. Each one of them had a saddle on them. Domesticating herbivorous Chimera was hard enough, but to be able to domesticate a pair of these killers? To the point of riding them? Sara moved closer, her curiosity getting the better of her, but she still kept her guard up.

The wind shifted, blowing in from behind her. Their heads perked up, and they looked towards her. They went right into a threat display: Head low, mouth baring teeth, and a sharp, menacing hiss.

"Is someone there?" A male voice called out.

"Are you alright?" Sara called out. "I heard a scream."

There was a soft rustle as a man came into view from behind the Nychora. He put a hand on each of their necks, and they seemed to relax slightly. At least they didn't seem ready to rip Sara's throat out any more. Sara and Shiela approached quickly.

"Your friend's got quite the set of armor on her." The man said.

Sara nodded. Her carapace had fallen off two nights ago. The clothes she was wearing now were pity-gifts from a group of traders coming in from what Sara now considered to be Hector's lands.

"You look fine." Shiela said. "Where's your friend?"

The man jerked his head towards the Nychora. "Laying down. We're breaking these Nychora in. A couple minutes ago, her ride got spooked, and she fell off. Her ankle got caught in her stirrup, and the Nychor dragged her for a while, across a pretty rocky field, until I managed to get it to calm down. She's not looking good."

Sara moved over to the man's friend, and paled. Sure enough, she looked horrible. Her right foot was bending in a way that seemed unnatural, her chest and side were covered with bruises and bloody cuts, one of her arms looked broken, and her hair was a bloody mess, sticking to her face. The blood was still flowing, mixing with dirt and dust.

Sara knelt beside the woman, and gently tested some of the injuries. "Other than the foot, her arm's broken too, probably when she hit the ground. She's still bleeding, but despite looking exceedingly bad, I think that most of what you see is just debris sticking to her. There's a huge risk of infection, though. She's going to be in some serious pain when she wakes up, and there's so much debris in her wounds, waiting until you get to a village to help her will mean it's too late. She's doomed, unless-"

"Unless what?" The man asked. "Can you help her?"

Sara bit her lip. "Maybe. I'm a Life mage, but I'm seriously out of practice, and tired besides. I might be able to help, or I might end up fucking her up even further."

The man looked right in her eyes. "Then don't screw up."

Sara nodded. "I need you to clean her wounds. It won't do us any good to bring her back to your village, only to have her die from an infection in a month."

The man nodded, and began rummaging through his Nychor's saddlebags. Sara, meanwhile, put her hands on the unconscious woman's worst injury: The broken arm. She closed her eyes, and focused on pouring the magic into the injury. She winced as she felt the broken bone moving under her hands, knitting itself back together. From there, she spread out her magic, repairing the broken blood vessels in her arm. When that was done, Sara opened her eyes, and saw the man had just finished tying a splint to her forearm, and was applying a healing salve to a rag, and using it to clean the woman's wounds. Sara followed his cleaning with her magic, closing up the wounds as he cleaned them.

About thirty minutes later, Sara stood back up, using Shiela for support to keep herself from falling right back down. She was so tired... everything seemed to be slowing down around her. Suddenly, the ground beneath her moved at a furious pace, rushing up to meet her. She was so far gone, she didn't even feel Shiela's strong arms wrap around her.

* * *

Shiela followed the man back to the dot on the horizon that was their village destination, walking alongside his Nychor, and carrying Sara. He kept stealing glances at her as he checked to make sure his unconscious companion was still secure on the second Nychor's saddle.

"I'm not going to attack you." She said after the twentieth time.

He laughed. "I guess not, but that's not why I keep looking at you." He admitted.

"Why, then?" Shiela asked.

"Where did you say you were coming from?" He asked.

"Why?" Shiela asked.

"Because, if you guys are coming from the East, then that makes my theory more sound." He explained.

"And what theory would that be?" Shiela asked after a short silence.

"That's not armor, is it?" He asked pointedly.

"What makes you think that?" Shiela asked.

"There's no weapon to go with it." He pointed out.

Shiela didn't respond, so he continued. "A couple of traders came to our village a little while ago. Said that there'd been an upsurge of violence in the east, and a lot of Chimera as well. Not the normal stuff, though. They said that it was a whole new breed of them. That some of them looked..." He trailed off.

"Like me?" Shiela supplied.

The man nodded. "Yeah. That 'armor' you're wearing is really similar to how the traders described these new Chimeras' skin."

"Did you believe the traders?" Shiela asked.

"No, not at first. But now, after seeing you, I think that they may have been right. It also makes me think that what they said about that boy's true."

"'That boy'?" Shiela asked. "What boy?"

"Apparently, a boy clad in armor that looked like the skin of these new Chimera beat Freylice's army in a pitched battle, then went on and sacked the city. The place is a graveyard now, each building a crypt."

A longer silence followed this news. They walked for a bit before the silence was broken again. "And yet you trusted us." Shiela pointed out. "Why?"

The man smiled at this. "At first, I admit that I didn't." He patted the sheathed dagger riding on his right thigh. "But when you two drew closer, I looked into your eyes, checking for anything that might tell me how fucked I was." He looked back at Shiela. "Your eyes were cautious, alert. They flitted from place to place quickly, scanning for danger – something that I've come to expect from soldiers, warriors, hunters and the like. But hers..." He shook his head. "They seemed so confused. There was a fire in them, a raging inferno of determination and confidence. But at the same time, there was a sort of doubt in them, like she was hunting for a purpose in this world."

More silence followed before he spoke again. "What really caught me was what shone over all of that. She had a beautiful, caring gleam in her eyes, like that of a lover." He shook his head. "You can't fake something like that, no matter how hard you try."

They fell silent again as they entered the village, the sun right over their heads. It wasn't a large one, Shiela observed. The village was ringed by a palisade about ten feet high. There were three other gates that lead into and out of the collection of buildings. Children played in the dirt streets under the watchful eyes of their parents. Every adult, it seemed, was armed, at least a knife sheathed on their person. Some had axes, others bows. A handful kept hammers busy as they worked away at their anvils. Others carried wooden staves.

They all seemed to notice that Shiela and the man had entered the town, but they paid no mind to the Nychora. Instead, a few of them ran forwards and took Sara and the man's companion. Shiela followed them, with the man in tow.

* * *

Sara woke up in a bed. Her eyes flitted around, scanning her surroundings. They landed on Shiela, who was standing ever-vigilant, even as the man's companion slept on a mattress laid out on wood planks to raise it up from the dirt floor. The room was illuminated by torches ringing it, set off slightly from the earth walls.

"Don't you ever sleep?" Sara asked.

Shiela shook her head. "The Zerg as a whole do not require sleep. However, since you are part human, your body still requires it. Were you not involved in such constant strenuous activity, I believe that you might be able to go a significant time without feeling any ill effects."

Sara blinked. Then, focusing, she sat up in the bed. Her head spun a little bit, and Shiela stepped forwards, but Sara held up a hand to stop her. "I'm not some baby to be coddled, Shiela." She said.

"No, my queen, but you are a human mage who just spent a day asleep after completely draining yourself of energy to heal another. You shouldn't push yourself so hard the second you get back on your feet."

"A day?" Sara asked.

"Day and a half, actually." The man said, entering the hut. "Glad to see you're awake."

"How is she?" Sara asked.

The man smiled. "She's actually doing pretty good. Our resident life mage took a look at her when we got here. Said that whoever it was that healed her up did a really good job. It's like she never fell."

Sara smiled in relief. "Glad I could be helpful, but we really do need to head out soon."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Leaving so soon?" He said. "From what your friend has told me, you two are in need of a place to stay."  
Sara shook her head. "That's true, but we're not the kind of people that you'd want to welcome into your village."

The man's face scrunched in confusion. "You're a powerful life mage who healed up the most important woman in my life. Why wouldn't we want you here?"

**Because I'm the leader of a splinter group of a pack of Chimera that can wipe out entire armies, lead by a boy who is probably going to come looking for me very soon. **She thought it, but didn't say it. "Because I'm not exactly what you would call lucky." She said instead. "Besides, I really am a bit more of a loner."

The man nodded. "I understand." He moved over to a table, grabbed a piece of parchment from a drawer, and brought it over to the bed, laying it out. Sara looked intently at the map.

"We're here." He said, pointing to a mark on the map. "Nearest villages are here and here." He pointed to a bend in a river and a point that looked to be on the edge of a forest.

Sara continued to examine the map, and her eyes fell on one spot in particular. "What's this place here?" She asked, pointing to it.

The man followed her finger, and sighed. "That place goes by many names: Chimera Valley, Chasm of No Return, Desert of Bones... Death." He shook his head. "Unlucky and loner are no reason to go looking for your own death, miss..." His face flushed with embarrassment. "I guess we haven't actually properly introduced ourselves around here, have we?" He put his hand out. "My name's Conner."

Sara blinked. Wasn't that... she took another look at him. He certainly looked... but was that really... she realized that she was staring at him. She shook his hand. "My name's Sara. My companion is Shiela."

Conner nodded. "My wife's named Karina." He said. "Anyways, heading into that place is the equivalent of suicide."

"Trust me." She said. "I'm a lot stronger than I look. I think I'll be able to take care of myself."

Conner shook his head. "That just about confirms my theory, then."

Shiela took a protective step forwards, standing beside a confused Sara. Conner raised his hands. "We went over this earlier, remember? I trust you people!"

Sara frowned. "Am I... am I missing something?"

"He knows we're not human like him." Shiela said.

"Then he understands why we can't stay here." She said, turning back to Conner. "I don't know how much you know, but I am not going to stay here. Doing so will put this whole town in danger."

Conner sighed. "Fine. But I don't care what you say, you're not leaving until morning. You're not traveling there in the dark."

Sara looked outside, noticed the stars in the sky, and sighed. "Fair enough. Good night."

* * *

_**A/N**_: I'M BAAAAAAACK! After about a year and a half, I remembered that writing is actually still allowed, since my fan-fiction isn't outlawed as a war crime under Geneva Conventions. Hopefully, it won't take another year and a half to get the next chapter up!


	2. Sara's Brood

Sara woke up feeling refreshed. She looked around the hut, and saw Karina was already up, making what looked like a stew. Sara walked over, grabbed a knife, and started cutting up some of the vegetables.

"Please, you don't need to do this." Karina said with a gentle smile. "I'll be even further in your debt if you keep on helping me like this."

Sara smiled back. "Let me help you, and we'll call your debt settled."

Karina laughed. "I won't question your generosity." She said, sliding a few more vegetables towards her while the water boiled.

"Do you always cook alone?" Sara asked, scooping up some of the diced vegetables and dumping them into the pot.

Karina shook her head. "Usually, Conner will have gotten up before me and made breakfast for us both. I'm not a late riser, he just rises with the sun, unless the day before was a rough one."

"Like yesterday?" Sara asked.

Karina nodded. "I got up before him today, but I noticed that your friend was already up and about. She left with Conner to go on a quick walk. She said that they needed to talk about something."

They were silent with their work for a little longer, until Sara asked, "So how do you domesticate Chimera?"

Karina smiled. "The hardest part is getting them to be calmer around people, especially if they're carnivores. You don't want them eating too many people, after all." She smiled. "For that, we usually have a Life Mage on hand."

"What do you mean?" Sara asked.

"Well, we found out that Life Mages have the ability to tap into a Chimera's emotions and manipulate them slightly." Karina explained. "So we'll have a Life Mage use their magic to calm the Chimera down, and once it isn't bothered so much by humans, someone will take it out for a ride to help it forge a stronger bond with humans, like the ride that Conner and I were on."

"I didn't know that I could do something like that as a Life Mage." Sara admitted.

"Well, I don't think many people try to do much with Chimera other than kill them." Karina said.

They took the pot off of the fire, and splashed some water on it to put it out. They sat, waiting for the stew to cool off. "So, where are you planning on going from here?" Karina asked.

"Further west." Sara said. "Somewhere secluded, somewhere quiet. I'm trying to find myself again."

Karina nodded. "Sometimes, even the best of us need a chance to take a step back from the insanity of this world."

Sara smiled. "Once I've had my fill of paradise, I don't think I'd mind coming back here."

Karina laughed. "We'll be waiting for you."

* * *

Once Conner and Shiela returned, they all ate, and Sara and Shiela took their leave. With their destination in mind, and a direction to travel, they set off, moving quickly despite the unfamiliar land. They knew that they were drawing closer when the land around them changed. At first, it was subtle. Already sparse clusters of trees disappeared entirely, and and the grass beneath their feet began to thin out. The ground they walked on became drier and drier, more cracked and lifeless. Cacti became the only foliage in sight, spines protecting what precious water they held within.

Finally, they found a small oasis lake, surrounded by cliffs on three sides, devoid of animal life, ringed by trees. A soft wind blew in, rustling the leaves in the trees, and providing a pleasant relief from the heat of the afternoon sun. Sara knelt down by the lake's shore, and took a few controlled drinks of water. Satisfied, she rose, and joined Shiela on a small hill overlooking the entrance to the lake.

"This is as good a place as any to start my own brood." Sara said, turning to Shiela. "Now, how am I supposed to do this?"

Shiela rested her hands on Sara's shoulders. "Take a deep breath, and brace yourself."

"Brace for wha-" Sara felt energy flood into her body. Fatigue she hadn't realized was there disappeared. Her body felt stronger, more alive. Sara felt Shiela's hands come off of her shoulders. Sara looked to Shiela, and froze.

Sara knelt beside Shiela's now-prone form where she had collapsed. She reached out to shake Shiela, but the instant that Sara's hands touched Shiela, Sara felt the energy flow out of her. Shiela's normally stoic face twisted in a frightening mix of pain and pleasure. The single piercing scream that came from her lips was one of intermingled agony and ecstasy.

Sara's vision blurred with tears. What had she done? Had she just killed Shiela? Was she responsible for this? Was she to be alone out here?

A familiar purple ooze seeped out from under Shiela's body. Sara's eyes widened in realization, and a bitter smile formed on her face. "Thanks, Shiela." She muttered.

Sara watched as Shiela's body was encased by the Creep, even as the Creep spread out. Sara wondered idly whether Shiela was becoming the Brood Chamber growing before her, or if she was dead, and her corpse was to be the seed from which the Chamber would grow.

Sara followed the Creep to the trees ringing the oasis. Wishing for anything as a distraction, Sara walked to one of the trees that the Creep was advancing up. She watched as the Creep sent tendrils up the tree's bark, crisscrossing like a spider's web before "blooming" into Creep, sending more tendrils out to continue the process.

Eventually, the sun finally went down, and Sara finally gave in to the fatigue that had been fighting her ever since Shiela's transformation. She found a place to lay down underneath some of the trees, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

At first, Sara wasn't sure that she'd even opened her eyes. She closed them and opened them. Slowly, light began to filter through... was she in a cocoon? Sara looked down at her body, at the new carapace that had formed. She pushed against the fleshy walls of the cocoon, and broke through.

The afternoon sun shone down harshly on the Creep-covered shore of the oasis lake, where a trio of Nychora were taking a drink. They noticed her approach, and immediately went into threat posturing.

Her conversation with Karina flashed through her mind. With no other real options, Sara reached her mind out to the Nychora as though they were members of her Brood. But they weren't, and she only got vague imprints of the anxious and threatened impulses running through the Chimeras' minds. In response, she sent calming wave of impulses to the Nychora. They stopped their threat posturing, and watched with idle curiosity as Sara knelt by the side of the lake and took a few drinks of water.

Satisfied, she opened her mind to her Brood. She felt the Brood Chamber on the hill, and the Creep all around her, but that was it. Suddenly, information passed into her mind, as though it were lifted from a scroll.

_No genetic material available for use. Gather genetic material._

Genetic material? What did that mean? As if in response, the message in her head altered itself.

_No strains have been introduced to this Brood. Gather suitable fauna or flora for use._

Fauna or flora... plants or animals? Sara looked at the Nychora. Two of them were leaving, but the third kept looking at her. A thought struck her, and she moved towards the third. It didn't object as she approached, sending more impulses to it as she came. Finally, she was right next to it. She reached her hand out to touch the Nychor's snout, and it nuzzled her hand, _purring_.

Sara drained just enough of the Nychor's energy to make it tired. She followed it to the Creep-covered ground, and rested its snout on her legs as the Creep encased the creature.

_New genetic material obtained. Introducing to Brood._

Sara stood, and began walking towards the Brood Chamber. It reminded her of Hector's Brood Chamber, outside and inside. However, the large sac in the middle that held reserve bio-energy was strangely absent. Sighing, she sat down in the center of the Brood Chamber, and closed her eyes.

_Raptor added to Brood Pool. Beginning Larva spawn cycle._

There was a wet slap as a foot-long Larva dropped from the ceiling of the Brood Chamber onto the Creep. Her first Larva's presence entered the Brood's collective consciousness. A few moments later, Sara felt another mind enter into existence within the Swarm. One that felt vaguely familiar.

The Nychor – no, the Raptor – laid its head across her legs, and she stroked its snout. She looked at the creature. Gone were the scales, replaced by a brown carapace covering strong muscles in its neck, arms, legs and tail. However, there was something different about the carapace. She noticed the same with her own carapace. Somehow, it seemed more solid than she remembered. Shaking her head and conceding the point to not having seen a nourished carapace for over a week, and honestly not wanting to remember, she thought instead of something else.

This was her Brood. Her new start. She looked up into the Brood Chamber's ceiling, where another Larva was worming its way out of the hole that had seen it born. "We did it, Shiela." Sara said aloud. "We did it."


	3. Facing the Past

On the second night, Sara woke up to a sudden alarm. Yesterday, she'd birthed a pair of Raptors and called it a day. Now, all three Raptors were furiously calling out to her. She was up in an instant, scanning the inside of the Brood Chamber for threats. When she found none, she tapped into her Brood's senses.

Suddenly, she was down to two Raptors, and Sara quickly understood why. Her small group of Raptors had been ambushed by a pair of Venoraki: large, nocturnal spiders with stiff hairs covering their black skin, and equipped with powerful fangs and toxic venom. The third raptor was laying on the ground, dead. The flesh on its back was dissolving, thanks to the potent mix of toxins in the venom coursing through its body.

The Raptors that were left had learned from their fallen ally's mistake. They stood away from the Venoraki, swatting at the spiders with their powerful tails whenever they tried to advance. Eventually, the Venoraki turned to their meal, sucking up the semi-digested body of the third Raptor until their hunger and Sara's Creep had consumed the corpse.

Then, the Venoraki left, heading for the cliffs around the lake. Sara watched through a Raptor's eyes as the Venoraki crawled up the side of the cliff, disappearing into the shadows. As an enemy, Sara knew that Venoraki were dangerous. But if she could get one of them for her brood...

That could wait, though. She couldn't fight the Venoraki with her Raptors. In a close-quarters battle like that, she'd need overwhelming numbers. An idea popped into her head, but she decided to put it off until tomorrow. Until then, she had another pair of Raptors start birthing, and went back to sleep.

* * *

Morning broke without further incident. Sara got up, stretched, and went to the Creep-covered wall of the cliff. She quickly found the burrows that the Venoraki had dug into the cliff's face. Sara knew that the Creep had claimed a decent chunk of their meal last night, and that it wouldn't be long until they were hungry again. Last night, though, they'd had the element of surprise. Sara wouldn't let that happen again tonight.

Sara mounted one of the Raptors, and took off for a ride, looking for something. It wasn't long until she found what she was looking for on the Creep-covered landscape. She jumped off of the Raptor and walked up to the spiny cactus, one of the many that dotted the desert. The Creep had already spread over the Cactus, the tendrils weaved between the barbed spines, so all she had to do was think of what she wanted.

_New genetic material obtained._ The voice echoed in her head. _Introducing to Brood._

Satisfied, Sara remounted the Raptor and headed back to her Brood Chamber. Along the way, the voice echoed in her head again. _Spine Column added to Brood Pool._

Sara smiled. She was starting from scratch, and she felt she was doing fairly well. She'd already added two strains to her Brood. Tonight, she intended to add a third.

* * *

Night came quicker than usual, it seemed. Sara sat awake, looking at the cliffs, waiting for the Venoraki. They'd only had half a meal last night. They would come back, she knew.

A form shifted in the shadows that covered the cliffs. Sara smiled. It was show time.

The Venoraki crawled down the cliffs quickly, making a beeline for the nearest Raptor, which was lying down in 'sleep' next to the treeless lake. Sara waited until they were right on top of the Raptor before she sprang her trap.

The ground shook as the Spine Columns erupted out of the ground where the trees had been. They were massive pillars, twenty feet high and five feet thick. Each one sprouted barbed spines which covered their entire bodies. A second later, the Spine Columns closest to the Venoraki flexed, and volleys of spines shot out, pinning the massive spiders where they stood, but not killing them outright.

The Creep advanced over the bodies of the Venoraki quickly, and the spines fell off as the Creep touched them. Soon, the Venoraki were entirely encased in the Creep, and the now-familiar voice announced to her, _New genetic material obtained. Introducing to Brood._

Sara watched as her Spine columns retracted their spines and sank back into the Creep. She had also had two of her Larva turn into Spine Columns at the entrance to the oasis, providing her with another level of security.

_Spinner added to Brood Pool,_ the voice announced. Sara smiled, and had one of her Larva birth into a Spinner.

A few minutes later, a large brown spider emerged from the cocoon. It was imposing, just as big as the Venoraki had been. She was eager to discover its abilities, but it was late, and Sara wanted to rest. She laid down on the floor of the Brood Chamber, and drifted off into sleep.

* * *

_Twisted faces revolved around her, their features distorted beyond recognition. Their voices were only slightly more intelligible._

"_You left us."_

"_We miss you!"_

"_Why'd you leave us?"_

"_Come back!"_

_Fire sprang up out of nowhere, consuming everything around her, but leaving her alone. She saw her old self, her young self, looking up at her brother. Their exchange was muted. Then, their forms shifted. Sara grew, and this time, though the words were muted, she remembered the exchange._

"_Please, promise me you'll stay by my side through all of this. Promise me you'll be there every step of the way. Promise me that no matter what happens, you'll always be my little sister."_

"_I... I promise, Hector. I promise..."_

* * *

_Dead bodies strewn everywhere, buildings crushed or burning. Mixed among the corpses, along with the broken shields, snapped arrows, and discarded weapons and armor, were the dead bodies of the Swarm, of Hector's Brood. Nothing was alive. The only movement was the flapping of fabric in the wind, the licking of flames and the flickering of the shadows they cast. Unintelligible insignias covered the shields and armor. The stench of death and decay hung heavy in the air. She couldn't believe this. How many people, how many innocent lives, were gone now? _

_Lightning flashed. Thunder boomed. The heavens opened up, pouring rain down onto the street, the pools of blood mixing with the rain, turning the streets into red torrents. Lightning flashed again, the wind howled furiously..._

* * *

_She was alone on the battlefield, holding her sword tight in her hands. She cautiously circled her foe as he did the same, their weapons glinting in the afternoon sun. What was she fighting for, though? Why was she here? She could put down her sword and leave. She didn't have to fight this battle, a battle which wasn't hers to fight in the first place!_

_Then her foe charged, and she forced herself to fight back. Block, swipe, sidestep, thrust, parry, slash, strike, block, sidestep, cleave, forwards, kick, stab! Sara felt cold as her foe's sword tore into her stomach, even as her own sword fell uselessly from where her hands had held it, at the apex of her swing, an attack that would've ended the duel just as her foe had._

_She fell to her knees, and clutched at her wound. She looked up at the man who had just fought her, the man who had just killed her, and squinted as the sun-backed silhouette raised his sword to finish the fight..._

* * *

_She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the other soldiers, spear in her hands, shield on her left arm. In front of her, The Swarm was bearing down on them, in all of its massive power. Fear, overwhelming terror, swept through her body. She was going to die here, she realized. She was going to die here, and probably for nothing. She braced her spear against the ground as she would against a charging Chimera, and waited for the impact._

_Eventually, the Swarm's charge hit their phalanx, and the battle turned to a melee. Her spear broke, and she switched to her short sword, cutting and hacking at anything that got close, using her battered shield to deflect incoming attacks. She was tired, beaten, and injured all over. She barely noticed when her legs came out from underneath her. When the air was knocked out of her lungs, she barely changed her breathing patterns. When heavy claws tore through her armor and turned the flesh underneath to bloody ribbons, she was too broken to bother screaming..._

* * *

_She stood over her defeated foe, who looked up at her with cold, unemotional eyes. He was a broken man, a shadow of his former self. Once, he had incredible power, and could command entire armies into battle on a whim. He had allied himself with others as powerful as he, and they made the mistake of standing against her. Now, he knelt at her feet, staring blankly up at her, surrounded by the slain members of his guard. Her hand came to rest on his forehead, and, in an instant, the man turned to dust and scattered on the wind. She looked up, and saw the armies of his allies marching towards her own forces, seeking revenge for the destruction of their allies. She sighed. Would this cycle never end? Without missing a beat, she gave the command for her own forces to begin the battle once again..._

* * *

Sara's eyes shot open, and she sat bolt upright. She looked around, eyes flitting from place to place. Quickly, she realized that she was safe here. She was in her Brood Chamber. Raptors and a Spinner kept watch over the oasis, patrolling the shadows cast by the morning sun.

The dreams... She shuddered. They were still playing in her head, even as the guilt racked her heart. She'd left her family behind. Her mother... Rose and Daniel... Kaylee and Kyle...Was it really the right thing to do? Was running away really the right way to handle it? Was there a better way?

She sighed. Why her? Why did she have that dream? Why had she gotten knocked out, only to experience that dream? Why not someone else? What was it that made her so Gods-damned special? And then there were these new dreams. They didn't make sense... but at the same time, Sara felt like she knew exactly what they meant.

She laid back down onto the Creep, and looked up at the ceiling of the Brood Chamber. "I'm so lost, Shiela." She said. "Lost and confused. I'm not sure where to go from here. I've got a Brood. Now what?"


End file.
